that was john mccain's, by the way, second appearance on fox within 12 hours. the republicans are right on track for 2016, folks. let's turn to howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of the huffington post media group. howard, i was struck by your comment yesterday on "hardball" where you said that the hearing was the last failed shot of the 2012 election and the first failed shot of the 2016 campaign. how are the republicans doing today? >> well, i think i said it was a desperate act, but failed shot will also do. ed, i really think the emotional energy among the republicans is about their frustration at the way they lost the presidential election and their sort of lashing out at major figures in the democratic party such as hillary clinton as they begin the 2016 cycle. rand paul, senator rand paul imagined himself as president and dreamed of how he would have fired hillary clinton. but as implausible as it may seem to our viewers tonight, rand paul wants to run for president and thinks he can get elected. and he's going to run on th